11/13/09
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca

Compared to a lot of places today was a good day for a bike ride. Compared to our typical ride over the last few weeks it was a bit cool. Just as I was about to leave the house I decided to go back in and put on knee warmers and a long sleeve jersey with w hood. The group that showed up for the ride confirmed my assessment as they were all dressed warmer than Wednesday as well.

At least two of us had appointments today so we decided on a shorter than normal ride that headed east. Our pack included Huntress, Rocket, Quicksticks, Red Rabbit, Duramax and me. We left the parking lot just after 9am leaving Snow Goose and Parky with the intention of meeting them at Carl’s about 11am. The sky was a bit more overcast than it had been an hour earlier and there was a slight breeze.

After turning off of Sanderson and onto Domenigoni we made a quick run up to the road leading to the marina. We all followed Rocket on the climb to the top of the hill and back out onto Domenigoni. We then turned onto State and went through the houses off of McSweeney and headed back down State Street. The Red Rabbit decided to head for home when he got back to Domenigoni and Rocket had an appointment so it was down to 4 of us.
We turned east on Stetson and South through the old homes and somehow we lost Quicksticks. We found him again after turning off of Lake Street and rode together to Fairview. The sun would pop out and flirt with burning off the clouds but it still wasn’t getting any warmer however Huntress and Duramax still had a smile on their faces. Duramax left before we got back to Carl’s.
Pictures

Coffee was good and the conversation was as well. When it was time to leave Huntress, Quicksticks and I rode over to Park heading west. Disaster struck when Quicksticks went down just before we made the turn onto Columbia and it looked like he sacrificed his body to save the bike. Ginny and I raced back to help him up but he assured us he was all right. He later seems as if he landed harder than he let on. We can only hope he recovers quickly.

By the time I got home I had logged in a short 29 miles with good friends on a good day.